The Flaw
by ArrowandShield
Summary: Steve learns about Clint's disability. Pre-CaptainHawk. Asex!Clint. Straight!Steve.


**Steve finds out about Clint's disability...**

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**The Flaw  
**  
Steve found out separate from the rest of the team, but evidently not before Bruce. The doctor had read and understood clues and cues that the rest of the group had missed.

Steve had found it strange that when all other people in the modern age seemed to surround themselves with noise. Music in their workshops and labs and ear buds cemented into place. Music on their phones and computers. There was a constant hum in the world now, sometimes louder, sometimes nearly silent but always there.

Except where Clint went. It was as if there was a bubble f silence surrounding the archer. He moved quietly, barely making footsteps but there was no music, no chatter or noise. The radio was never on in his Jeep, he didn't have an iPod or a MP3 player. He didn't have headphones at all. The television in the few times that it was left on was muted so only the picture or occasionally the scroll of typed letter captioning what was going on in the show filtering across the bottom of the screen.

Steve actually appreciated the reprieve from sound, knowing that if it became too much he could go and find Clint and wherever the archer was there was that veil of comforting silence.

It took a while for Steve to actually realize that it was happening. That there was silence following around the archer. And Tony actually had to make mention of it first as well, teasing the archer when he didn't claim a favorite type of music or a favorite song.

It was odd and Steve started to pay closer and closer attention.

Steve almost let it go when Clint hauled a antique record player into the apartment with a huge stack of vinyl records, most of them from the Big Band era but a fair range as well and a massive grin plastered on his face. He said he'd bought them at a sidewalk block sale in a neighborhood not far over. There were more records in the Jeep.

Steve could have kissed the archer the first time they set up the record player, slipped a vinyl of the Glen Miller Band into place and dropped the needle.

Suddenly the silence that seemed to linger around Clint had thinned. Narrowing down a bit as most of his time was spent with Steve and Steve when he was at the apartment liked to have Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington or The Andrews Sisters humming in the background.

But Clint never seemed to notice who or what was being played. Nor the volume. The only give away that he was aware of the music at all was he would take his shoes off and plant bare feet onto the floor and always try to keep on it contact with the hardwood. If he was asked he would seem confused about the question then make a generalize statement of pleasure about the sounds.

Steve had gone to Bruce, one of the few other members of the team that he felt connection enough to speak to openly. He expressed concerns that Clint didn't like the kind of music he did, or movies since he never seemed to pay attention. Hell sometimes it seemed like Clint wasn't paying attention to him at all.

Bruce had smiled gently and reassured Steve it was nothing like that. The soldier had worried aloud that then what could it possibly be? The doctor hesitated before telling him.

The Clint was almost completely deaf.

Fifteen percent in one ear and fifty in another… depending. A headache or a bad day resulted in weaker hearing.

The archer hadn't seemed angry at Bruce for giving the secret away, in fact he was guilty for letting Steve think he was being ignored, and a bit ashamed of his flaw. Clint told him how it happened in stiff and hushed tones. About a memory of an accident that he didn't remember completely but knew it had happened because it was seared into him.

Four years old. Tumbling off the dock into the water of the pond. Sinking, struggling, breathing water, the rush and cold everywhere. In his eyes, nose, throat. In his ears. His clothes weighting him down. The neighbor pulling him out, breathing life back into him. Then the silence.

Clint told him how over time slowly, the small flutters of sound returned bit by bit. Slowly sinking back in over time until he could just hear. Only just enough.

The archer told Steve with a sardonic smile that being deaf and in foster care had been the worst stretch of his life. Constantly surprised and beaten by adults, older kids, sometimes younger, hell anyone larger than himself anyone that saw weakness and preyed on it.

About how he had struggled to learn to read lips and even some sign language. Would fake his way through interviews with possible parents, possible families, even letting Bernie do most of the charming… until they would see 'deaf' on his file and would pass him over. Adopting Bernie, adopting younger kids, more attractive kids, anyone but the 'cripple'.

He almost laughed when he told the soldier how it had helped in the circus despite fighting through his poor balance, over coming it with training. It was easy for him to concentrate, to stay focused as he worked on the high wires or tumbled and rolled through difficult acrobatics. He couldn't hear the crowds, cheers or jeers. All his attention could stay on the acts, the routines, the movements and tricks.

Same with his work a sniper. With his commander or Handler speaking softly in his ear, always in his good one, he could focus on the task at hand. Focus on his target and his shot and never miss. Though it made him an easy target himself. He had to check, make sure he was on is own, that he wasn't being hunted himself frequently. He was hurt more easily, lost more easily, trapped more easily.

A blessing in some ways, a curse in others.

Steve wanted to know about hearing aids? Surgeries? Anything that would restore his hearing completely?

Clint had only shaken his head. He'd spent the last twenty five years learning how to live with his crippled balance and hearing. Learned how to function and excel with it, give it up for what? To be able to hear the traffic on the street or the chatter of birds in the park?

Clint confessed quietly though that he wished what little hearing he had was a bit better. That he would like to be able to recognize Steve's voice away from the drone and hum of others.

That... that made Steve blush...

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**A/N: I decided to pick a major flaw for Clint and it was a toss up between brain damage/seizures as a result fo the Tesseract's influence or being for the most part deaf. I chose deaf because it was something he'd have as a child so he could learn to adpat with it over time and hide it for the most part. Hope you liked!**


End file.
